March 29, 2012

Great article for rock fans and dog lovers: Musicians and Their Dogs (Photos)

From Rock Cellar Magazine: Musicians And Their Dogs (Photos)

Lots photos of musicians and their dogs. Woof!

http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/2012/03/19/photos-of-musicians-and-their-dogs/

March 27, 2012

The Worst Racial Demagogues of the Decade

From The Atlantic, The Worst Racial Demagogues of the Decade

In Stephen Colbert's ongoing spoof of conservative punditry, he often insists that he cannot see color. As if to prove that he's a spot on satirist, Rush Limbaugh has titled a Monday web item about the Trayvon Martin case, "The Left's Obsession with Race," wherein he explains to his audience:

This is one of those things I can't relate to. I don't look at people and see a race or a sexual orientation or whatever... I don't see black-versus-white or anything. The left is the ones who do this.

A lot of conservatives honestly believe this -- that the left is obsessed with race, while the right is assiduously colorblind, and wouldn't think about the subject, let alone discuss it in public, if its adherents were in charge. It's time that someone explain to them why the rest of America isn't buying it.

The right's race problem is a lot bigger than its most popular talk radio host, but he's a good place to begin. Remember when he briefly got a gig as an NFL commentator? If you watch Monday Night Football or Sports Center, you don't see much critical race theory creeping into the analysis. But bring in Rush Limbaugh and suddenly a conversation about Donovan McNabb's performance turned into what, if it were submitted as a term paper in a black studies class, might be titled, "How Racial Expectations Affect The Post-Civil Rights-Era Treatment of Black Quarterbacks In Mass Media." Whatever you think about Limbaugh's comments, he is the one who deliberately and needlessly brought McNabb's race into the conversation. He's also the man who won the 2009 award for accusing more people than anyone else of racism. And the man who responded to an obscure news item about a white kid getting beat up by a black kid on a school bus by saying that sort of black-on-white violence is perfectly kosher in Barack Obama's America. And who can forget his mocking mimicry of the way that Chinese people speak? If a black talk show host treated whites like Limbaugh treats minorities, conservatives would go ballistic.

More at: http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/03/the-worst-racial-demagogues-of-the-decade/255070/

March 27, 2012

One Drug to Shrink All Tumors

Source: Science/AAAS

A single drug can shrink or cure human breast, ovary, colon, bladder, brain, liver, and prostate tumors that have been transplanted into mice, researchers have found. The treatment, an antibody that blocks a "do not eat" signal normally displayed on tumor cells, coaxes the immune system to destroy the cancer cells.

A decade ago, biologist Irving Weissman of the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, California, discovered that leukemia cells produce higher levels of a protein called CD47 than do healthy cells. CD47, he and other scientists found, is also displayed on healthy blood cells; it's a marker that blocks the immune system from destroying them as they circulate. Cancers take advantage of this flag to trick the immune system into ignoring them. In the past few years, Weissman's lab showed that blocking CD47 with an antibody cured some cases of lymphomas and leukemias in mice by stimulating the immune system to recognize the cancer cells as invaders. Now, he and colleagues have shown that the CD47-blocking antibody may have a far wider impact than just blood cancers.

"What we've shown is that CD47 isn't just important on leukemias and lymphomas," says Weissman. "It's on every single human primary tumor that we tested." Moreover, Weissman's lab found that cancer cells always had higher levels of CD47 than did healthy cells. How much CD47 a tumor made could predict the survival odds of a patient.

To determine whether blocking CD47 was beneficial, the scientists exposed tumor cells to macrophages, a type of immune cell, and anti-CD47 molecules in petri dishes. Without the drug, the macrophages ignored the cancerous cells. But when the CD47 was present, the macrophages engulfed and destroyed cancer cells from all tumor types.

Read more: http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/03/one-drug-to-shrink-all-tumors.html?ref=hp

---

Amazing news if it can be developed for medical use.

March 27, 2012

From The NY Times: The Rich Get Even Richer

A great Op/Ed piece: The Rich Get Even Richer.

New statistics show an ever-more-startling divergence between the fortunes of the wealthy and everybody else — and the desperate need to address this wrenching problem. Even in a country that sometimes seems inured to income inequality, these takeaways are truly stunning.
In 2010, as the nation continued to recover from the recession, a dizzying 93 percent of the additional income created in the country that year, compared to 2009 — $288 billion — went to the top 1 percent of taxpayers, those with at least $352,000 in income. That delivered an average single-year pay increase of 11.6 percent to each of these households.

Still more astonishing was the extent to which the super rich got rich faster than the merely rich. In 2010, 37 percent of these additional earnings went to just the top 0.01 percent, a teaspoon-size collection of about 15,000 households with average incomes of $23.8 million. These fortunate few saw their incomes rise by 21.5 percent.

The bottom 99 percent received a microscopic $80 increase in pay per person in 2010, after adjusting for inflation. The top 1 percent, whose average income is $1,019,089, had an 11.6 percent increase in income.

More at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/26/opinion/the-rich-get-even-richer.html

March 27, 2012

Behind Court Challenge to Health Care Lies the Right’s ‘Freedom Fetish’

Frm The Daily Beast: Behind Court Challenge to Health Care Lies the Right’s ‘Freedom Fetish’

Mar 27, 2012 4:45 AM EDT

Conservatives love to say Obama has robbed us of our liberty. But can they name a single freedom that the administration has curtailed? Michael Tomasky poses a challenge.

Behind the challenges to the Affordable Care Act (ACA) being heard at the Supreme Court this week is the idea that Barack Obama wants to take away your freedoms (as Mitt Romney himself asserted today). I’ve long since stopped counting the number of ridiculous things said about Obama, but this might be the ridiculousest of them all. At least the Kenyan rumors have some basis in reality, however threadbare it is, since his father was indeed Kenyan and he does have a funny name, for an American president. But this "freedom" business is simply paranoid and delusional. I defy anyone to name for me a specific and precise freedom that Obama has taken away from the American people. You can’t. When they’re not just invented out of whole cloth by multi-millionaire propagandists, all such laments are based on ignorance about what freedom actually means and an equal ignorance about how our system of government works.

Back in March 2010, Megyn Kelly was on Fox talking up a CNN poll showing that 54 percent of people thought the government could pose a threat to their rights. This clinched it, she said. But Alan Colmes came on and actually asked her: Okay, Megyn, what freedoms, exactly, have disappeared under President Obama? She didn’t answer, and of course she didn’t answer because there is no answer. People are “worried,” she said, that “the federal government is going to step in, take over, and they’re not going to be able to see their [health-care] coverage.” It just got lamer from there.

I wouldn’t doubt that there are assorted people here and there who may have been, say, adversely affected by a wetlands determination or some other bureaucratic decision. And of course there are American citizens who have been detained—and worse—in the war on terror. They tend to be of Arab descent, and something tells me these Americans aren’t the ones Kelly or those protesting the Affordable Care Act outside the Supreme Court building have in mind. Outside of those examples, though, the idea that anyone is losing freedoms in this country is foolishness.

More at http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/27/behind-court-challenge-to-health-care-lies-the-right-s-freedom-fetish.html

March 27, 2012

Support in U.S. for Afghan War Drops Sharply, Poll Finds

Source: The New York Times

After a series of violent episodes and setbacks, support for the war in Afghanistan has dropped sharply among both Republicans and Democrats, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.

The survey found that more than two-thirds of those polled — 69 percent — thought that the United States should not be at war in Afghanistan. Just four months ago, 53 percent said that Americans should no longer be fighting in the conflict, more than a decade old.

The increased disillusionment was even more pronounced when respondents were asked their impressions of how the war was going. The poll found that 68 percent thought the fighting was going “somewhat badly” or “very badly,” compared with 42 percent who had those impressions in November.

The latest poll was conducted by telephone from March 21 to 25 with 986 adults nationwide. It has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/world/asia/support-for-afghan-war-falls-in-us-poll-finds.html

March 26, 2012

Kohler pulls Limbaugh ads

Source: Sheboygan Press/AP

Kohler Co. has stopped advertising on radio commentator Rush Limbaugh’s nationally syndicated talk show, the company confirmed Monday, because of comments made by Limbaugh earlier this month calling a Georgetown University law student a “slut” during an on-air attack of her after she testified about birth control policy during a congressional hearing.

“We do not support the comments from Mr. Limbaugh and have pulled our advertising from his show,” said Jennifer Taylor, director of global public affairs for Kohler Co., said in a statement released by the company.

Kohler made the same announcement earlier Monday on the company’s official Twitter page.

Read more: http://www.sheboyganpress.com/article/20120326/SHE0101/120326144/Kohler-Co-pulls-Limbaugh-ads?odyssey=nav|head

---

Insert joke about toilet maker not being able to handle this sort of crap.

Keep the pressure up.

March 22, 2012

Radio campaign next step against Rush Limbaugh

Source: Associated Press

Rush Limbaugh's opponents are starting a radio campaign against him Thursday, seizing upon the radio star's attack of a Georgetown law student as a "slut" to make a long-term effort aimed at weakening his business.

The liberal Media Matters for America is using a past campaign against Glenn Beck as a template. In Limbaugh, however, they're going after bigger game. He's already fighting back and the group's stance has provoked concerns that an effort to silence someone for objectionable talk is in itself objectionable.

Media Matters is spending at least $100,000 for two advertisements that will run in eight cities.

The ads use Limbaugh's own words about student Sandra Fluke, who told congressional Democrats that contraception should be paid for in health plans. Limbaugh, on his radio programs, suggested Fluke wanted to be paid to have sex, which made her a "slut" and a "prostitute." In return for the money, he said Fluke should post videos of herself having sex. Under sharp criticism, Limbaugh later apologized.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jFCzNPqhK4Wblf1LsphUnLn7lZbA?docId=94bec8b86d87461f8f7abb2a1e71deb9

---

One of the ads points out the obvious--it urges people to call stations carrying Mr. Limbaugh's show and complain. We need to keep the pressure up. Call the stations and tell them you don't want them carrying the radio show of a hate spewing drug addict.

March 22, 2012

Economic recovery here to stay? Conference Board indicators rise

Source: Los Angeles Times

Does the economic recovery actually have legs? Long ones, according to the Conference Board, whose index of leading economic indicators (including jobless claims) continued to perk up in February in the biggest increase in nearly a year.

The index, which includes improving measures such as income and sales, was up 0.7% last month to 95.5 after rising 0.2% in January and 0.5% in December. That’s the most substantial advance in 11 months and the highest point since June 2008.

Fueling the uptick: a promising jobs market, with the unemployment rate at a three-year low and first-time claims for jobless benefits falling last week to a four-year low, according to a Labor Department report Thursday.

Building permits are up, according to the index, as are stock prices, which late last month helped the Dow Jones industrial average close above 13,000 for the first time since the financial crisis. And with more income in their pockets, the country’s consumers are spending more this year – expenditures that make up 70% of economic activity.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-conference-board-20120322,0,7580395.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29

March 22, 2012

The Onion: Poll Shows Best Part Of Primary Season Has Been Really Getting To Know, Spend Time With 4

Poll Shows Best Part Of Primary Season Has Been Really Getting To Know, Spend Time With 4 Great Guys

According to a Gallup poll released Thursday, a majority of Americans believe the best and most satisfying aspect of the entire 2012 presidential primary experience has been the opportunity to spend extended time in the company of four just really terrific guys.

Calling Republican candidates Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul "truly great individuals right down the line," and a group they had long wanted to get to know better, citizens across the country expressed deep gratitude for the chance not only to be around the four men, but to really learn more about who they are as people.

"The thing I'll miss most about the primaries, once they've sadly drawn to a close, won't be the process of figuring out who should be our next president, but getting to see my four new friends every day and have them in my life," said poll respondent Marie Sedran, echoing the sentiments of millions nationwide. "I mean, how many opportunities do you get in life to spend quality time with even one smart, charming, likable, sensitive, and downright lovely human being, let alone four at once!"

"Honestly, all through this entire primary season I've been pinching myself," Sedran added. "What did we do to deserve these four fantastic gentlemen?"

More at: http://www.theonion.com/articles/poll-shows-best-part-of-primary-season-has-been-re,27715/